Current Nationwide
Threat Level
Homeland
Security
ELEVATED
Daily Open Source Infrastructure
Report for 5 August 2009
Significant Risk of Terrorist Attacks
For information, click here:
http://www.dhs.gov
Top Stories

WPRI 12 Providence reports that the noxious gas that made over 100 people sick on
Monday at a New Bedford, Massachusetts waste disposal company came from trash from a
construction site. (See item 4)

WLS 7 Chicago reports that a man was charged with endangering people’s safety by
interfering with Chicago Transit Authority radio transmissions. The CTA says the radio
hacker posed a threat to trains, buses, and riders. (See item 15)
Fast Jump Menu
PRODUCTION INDUSTRIES
● Energy
● Chemical
● Nuclear Reactors, Materials and Waste
● Critical Manufacturing
● Defense Industrial Base
● Dams Sector
SERVICE INDUSTRIES
● Banking and Finance
● Transportation
● Postal and Shipping
● Information Technology
● Communications
● Commercial Facilities
SUSTENANCE AND HEALTH
● Agriculture and Food
FEDERAL AND STATE
● Government Facilities
●
Water Sector
●
Emergency Services
●
Public Health and Healthcare
●
National Monuments and Icons
Energy Sector
Current Electricity Sector Threat Alert Levels: Physical: ELEVATED,
Cyber: ELEVATED
Scale: LOW, GUARDED, ELEVATED, HIGH, SEVERE [Source: ISAC for the Electricity Sector (ES−ISAC) −
[http://www.esisac.com]
1. August 4, Associated Press – (National) Coast Guard: Gulf oil spill cleanup complete.
The Coast Guard says crews have completed the cleanup of a 58,000-gallon oil spill in
the Gulf of Mexico. The oil spill occurred July 25, about 65 miles south of Houma. A
Shell pipeline released the oil for reasons that are still under investigation. The Coast
Guard said cleanup was completed on August 3, though repairs to the pipeline continue.
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Source:
http://www.theadvertiser.com/article/20090804/NEWS01/90804007/Coast+Guard++Gu
lf+oil+spill+cleanup+complete
2. August 3, New Hampshire Union Leader – (New Hampshire) Explosion damages
building at tanker terminal. The explosion on August 3 inside a J.P. Noonan
Transportation garage in Hooksett, New Hampshire happened as a mechanic was
removing a broken valve from underneath a tanker, an employee said this morning. The
mechanic, who has worked at the transportation company for 19 years, is credited with
having the foresight to move the tanker that was on fire out of the garage. He said the
explosion blew off two of the five lids on the tanker, igniting vapors that set fire to the
tank. The mechanic, who had been under the tanker, was up and moving after the
explosion and seemed all right but flames were coming from two of the five
compartments on the tanker. Instead of fleeing the area, he ran in the direction of the
explosion and got the tanker out of the garage where firefighters poured water on it to
extinguish the flames and cool it down. His co-worker was treated for injuries to his
knees at a local hospital and released. What caused the explosion remains under
investigation.
Source:
http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Explosion+damages+building+at+ta
nker+terminal&articleId=1f5d27a2-2727-45c4-813d-0d0ea06a2350
3. August 1, Laurel Leader-Call – (Mississippi) Lightning strikes propane tank. The
Jones County Emergency Management Agency avoided a major disaster on July 30 after
lightning struck an 18,000-gallon propane tank off Old Highway 15 South in Glade. The
executive director of the agency said volunteer departments from Glade, M&M and
Powers helped minimize the danger of the situation. “The relief valve on the tank itself
was damaged in the strike, allowed gas vapor to come out of the tank,” he said. “When it
escaped, it caught fire. The fire was contained to the relief valve itself. The tank didn’t
explode or anything, but the gas coming out of the valve was burning. It was a cause for
concern because we couldn’t close the relief valve.” He said approximately 10,000
gallons of product was in the tank at the time of the incident. “We called a propane
safety group from the state, and worked out a plan with the product owner and supplier
to offload it,” he said. “It could have been a big event, but we managed to make it a
small event,” he said. “It was right next to a chicken house, and we didn’t even lose a
chicken.” The Jones Co. fire coordinator said the event could have been “catastrophic”
for the property owner if the propane tank had ignited. “The valve was doing 99.9
percent of its job,” he said. “Working with the propane company, we were able to save
all of the chicken houses, which is a multi-million dollar operation.”
Source: http://www.leadercall.com/local/local_story_213115218.html
For another story, see item 28
[Return to top]
Chemical Industry Sector
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4. August 4, WPRI 12 Providence – (Massachusetts) Source of noxious gas narrowed to
trash. The noxious gas that made over 100 people sick at a New Bedford waste disposal
company came from trash from a construction site, authorities said on August 3.
Investigators do not know yet what in the pile of trash caused the fumes. Crews are in
the process of trying to figure out where the truck came from. A total of 119 people
were treated and evaluated on August 3 following the hazmat situation at ABC Disposal
Service, Inc. on Shawmut Avenue. According to the company’s website, it transports
and disposes of non-hazardous waste. Sixty-six people were taken to St. Luke’s
Hospital, including employees and emergency personnel. Two of the victims are
reported in critical condition with life-threatening injuries. Another 53 people were
transported to Charlton Memorial Hospital in Fall River for treatment. All those treated
are reportedly in good condition and have since been released. Five area businesses were
also evacuated as a result. The situation was upgraded from a tier one, in which only the
fire department responds, to a tier 3, which means about 45 hazmat members respond to
a scene.
Source:
http://www.wishtv.com/dpp/news/national/northeast/nat_wpri_new_bedford_source_of_
noxious_gas_narrowed_to_trash_20090804805_2722877
5. August 4, Galveston County Daily News – (Texas) Four chemical tankers jump
tracks. Four tankers containing hazardous chemicals derailed on August 3 in Texas
City, but no chemical releases or injuries were reported, officials said. Placards on at
least one of the leaning tankers near state highways 3 and 146 listed the contents as
methylamine anhydrous, a highly flammable solution that can produce a poisonous gas
when burned. Crews responded shortly after 2 p.m. to a Union Pacific transfer yard but
declared the incident was no threat to the public, said the Texas City Homeland Security
Coordinator. Roads near the derailment remained open. Two cars were returned to rails
by 5 p.m., and crews using a crane were expected to have the remaining two back on the
tracks by 6 p.m.
Source: http://galvestondailynews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=b7674f3facbd0cb3
6. August 3, San Diego Union-Tribune – (California) Chemical spill closes northbound I15 at I-8. All northbound lanes of Interstate 15 are closed at Interstate 8 after an
accident in San Diego involving a truck in which the chemicals it was carrying spilled,
according to the California Highway Patrol. All traffic is being diverted off the freeway
at Interstate 8 as crews clean up the spill. The closure is expected to last until about 4
p.m., according to the CHP. Witnesses said the truck flipped over several times in the
crash, which was reported just after 1 p.m., according to the CHP. The driver told
authorities the truck was carrying muriatic acid, chlorine and several gallons spilled on
the freeway. No injuries were reported. Traffic is at a standstill in the area, prompting
the CHP to issue a traffic advisory. Traffic is backed up to University Avenue,
according to a Caltrans Web site.
Source:
http://weblog.signonsandiego.com/news/breaking/2009/08/north_i15_shut_down_at_i8.
html
[Return to top]
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Nuclear Reactors, Materials, and Waste Sector
7. August 4, Morris Daily Herald – (Illinois) Tritium-tainted steam released during
“unusual event.” One of two reactors at Braidwood Generating Station in Braceville,
Illinois was shut down during an “unusual event” from late Thursday to early Sunday.
During the shutdown of Unit 2 — which occurred when power coming into the plant
was lost because of a transformer issue — the systems were depressurized and steam
released into the atmosphere with a loud noise. The steam, according to a press release
from Exelon Nuclear, contained from 11,500 to 38,000 picocuries of tritium per liter of
water, or 0.1 percent of all airborne radionuclides released by Braidwood Station
annually. Although the Braidwood Site vice president noted this kind of steam venting
poses no environmental, health or safety impact to workers or the public, an official
maintains the radiation standards are probably set too high.
Source: http://www.morrisdailyherald.com/articles/2009/08/03/22790995/index.xml
[Return to top]
Critical Manufacturing Sector
8. August 4, East Liverpool Review – (Tennessee) Fire reported at New Cumberland
industrial plant. Several fire departments responded to a blaze on August 3 inside a
New Cumberland industrial facility. At approximately 9:30 p.m., the call went out for
assistance at Jamegy, Inc. along South Chestnut Street. There were no injuries in the
blaze. The New Cumberland Volunteer Fire Department Chief indicated employees
were shoveling the chemical element zirconium when it ignited. The fire suppression
system did not extinguish the fire, however, and nearby fire departments were
summoned. There was no indication that officials were worried about any chemical
release. State Route 2 remained open, but the street leading into the Jamegy plant was
closed for a little more than an hour. The fire was reported under control at
approximately 10:17 p.m., according to initial reports. The facility reprocesses scrap
metals such as that from the TIMET facility in Toronto. Titanium is extracted from the
materials and is then repackaged for sale to steel and other industries.
Source: http://www.reviewonline.com/page/content.detail/id/517327.html?nav=5008
9. August 4, Occupational Health and Safety – (National) FAA requires ice protection
changes for transport aircraft. Acting because of accidents and incidents in which
flight crews did not operate the airframe ice protection system (IPS) in a timely manner,
and also because of concerns over crews’ workload when they must manually cycle an
IPS when they see ice accumulating, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued
a final rule yesterday requiring that transport aircraft certificated for flight in icing
conditions have a system that operates continuously, a system that automatically cycles
the IPS, or an alert to the crew each time the IPS must be cycled. The final rule will take
effect Sept. 2, 2009; it will ensure crews have a clear means to know when to activate
the IPS and will reduce the workload, FAA said. The final rule includes this language:
“The FAA acknowledges that it is not a simple task to design and certificate an ice
detection system. However, ice detection systems exist today that meet the reliability
-4-
requirements of part 25. Section 25.1309 ensures the degree of reliability of an airframe
IPS is commensurate with the hazard level associated with the failure of the airframe
IPS. In response to the contention that an ice detector would not be economically
feasible, the FAA notes that on recent part 25 airplane certifications manufacturers
sought and received approval for installation of ice detectors without an FAA
requirement for such a system. Therefore, the FAA infers that these manufacturers
consider the installation of ice detectors economically feasible.”
Source: http://ohsonline.com/articles/2009/08/04/faa-requires-ice-protectionchanges.aspx
10. August 3, Columbia Daily Herald – (Tennessee) Fire damages Smelter Services
Aluminum Plant in Mt. Pleasant. Firefighters battled a blaze which lasted 45 minutes
on August 3 and consumed a large chunk of the roof at Smelter Services Corp. in Mt.
Pleasant, one of the city’s largest employers. The Mt. Pleasant Fire Chief said
firefighters were called out about 1:55 p.m. to the aluminum recycling plant located at
400 Arrow Mines Road, after Smelter employees reported fire coming from the roof.
Within minutes, flames had spread across about half of the facility’s roof. A plume of
black smoke could be seen for miles as it billowed over the town of about 4,500 people.
Though the blaze had been extinguished, crews were still at the scene at about 4:30 p.m.
Source: http://www.wdxe.com/wdxe.php?rfc=narticle.php&id=13623
11. August 3, St. Louis Post Dispatch – (Missouri) Gas line fails at U.S. Steel-Granite City
Works. Company officials are “assessing our options” after a blast furnace gas line
failure at U.S. Steel-Granite City Works on July 30, according to a spokeswoman. A
U.S. Steel spokeswoman said on July 31 that at about 5 p.m. on July 30, there was a
failure in an exhaust line that takes gases from the two blast furnaces at Granite City
Works. She did not know which specific blast furnace was affected. The “A” blast
furnace, the smaller of two at the facility, was brought on line earlier in the week after
being idled for some time. There was a small fire that was put out by company fire and
security personnel, and the area was evacuated. No injuries or explosions were reported.
Source:
http://suburbanjournals.stltoday.com/articles/2009/08/04/madison/news/doc4a734b0ade
3b0161062969.txt
For another story, see item 48
[Return to top]
Defense Industrial Base Sector
12. August 3, Aviation Week – (National) JSF faces showdown on F-35 cost. Pentagon
belief in Joint Strike Fighter program cost estimates could be wearing thin, as delays to
flight testing keep the program from proving whether it can break the mold of previous
fighter development efforts and stay on budget. The Defense Dept.’s independent Joint
Estimating Team (JET) has been told to update its projections for the F-35 program, and
is expected to again conclude it will take longer and cost more to complete development
than the joint program office (JPO) believes. This is raising concerns that the Pentagon
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will eschew the JPO estimate and budget for development at the JET’s higher figure,
forcing a major jump in projected program cost and potentially resulting in cuts to
aircraft procurement numbers. Lockheed Martin briefed JET officials on progress with
JSF development on July 29 in Fort Worth, the day after it officially rolled out the first
F-35C carrier variant for the U.S. Navy, the third and final version of the multi-service,
multi-national fighter. The F-35C’s first flight has slipped into January next year. The
previous JET report estimated, based on legacy programs, that development would cost
$5 billion more and take two years longer to complete than projected by the JPO in
2008. The estimators cited engineering destaffing, manufacturing span times, software
development and flight-test productivity as drivers of expected cost and schedule
growth. Program officials hope to convince the independent estimators that destaffing,
manufacturing and software are on track to deliver the JPO’s lower projections. “We do
not believe they are right,” says the Lockheed Martin F-35 program general manager.
But lack of flight testing means a major part of the JET assumptions cannot yet be
challenged. “It’s too early to prove them wrong,” he says.
Source:
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story.jsp?id=news/F35JET080309.xml&headl
ine=JSF%20Faces%20Showdown%20on%20F35%20Cost%20Estimates&channel=defense
[Return to top]
Banking and Finance Sector
13. August 3, Orange County Register – (California) Suspicious powder at credit union
determined to be drywall dust. A suspicious white powder found at a credit union on
August 3, prompting hazmat crews to respond, has been determined to be drywall,
authorities said. Authorities were called to Schools First Federal Credit Union when an
employee found the powder inside an envelope, said the captain of the Orange County
fire authority. The powder was found inside a deposit envelope and discovered by an
employee who opened it, said a sergeant of the Tustin Police Department. Two people
were isolated and checked by paramedics as a precaution, although they were not
experiencing any symptoms. At 11:35 a.m., hazmat crews determined that the substance
was not hazardous and appeared to be dust from drywall, the sergeant said.
Source: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/crews-union-credit-2516663-powder-hazmat
14. August 3, Reuters – (Florida) U.S. raids Colonial Bank office in Florida. The agency
that investigates misuse of U.S. banking bailout money raided two Florida financial
institutions on August 3 and Colonial Bank said one of them was its Orlando office. A
local source who asked not to be identified said the search involved Colonial’s mortgage
division but did not elaborate. A central Florida newspaper, the Ocala Star-Banner,
identified the target of the second warrant as the offices of the Taylor, Bean and
Whitaker Mortgage Corp in Ocala. Its website showed police and federal agents entering
the building, including one whose jacket bore the initials “SIGTARP.” SIGTARP is the
Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program and investigates waste
and fraud in the TARP program that buys assets from troubled financial institutions in
order to stabilize the banking industry. A SIGTARP spokeswoman in Washington
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would say only that its agents executed two search warrants in Florida on August 3.
Source: http://www.financialpost.com/news-sectors/story.html?id=1856146
[Return to top]
Transportation Sector
15. August 3, WLS 7 Chicago – (Illinois) Man accused of hacking CTA radio. A 20-yearold man was charged with endangering people’s safety by interfering with Chicago
Transit Authority (CTA) radio transmissions. The CTA says the radio hacker posed a
threat to trains, buses, and riders. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) says the
man bought a commercially available radio a year ago and programmed it to transmit
and receive CTA frequencies. Initially, investigators say he began with prank calls. “It
escalated to the point where he began issuing orders to train operators and bus
operators,” said an FBI spokesman. It is alleged that at one point he gave orders that
allowed a Blue Line train operator to bypass a red light. Another time, the FBI says he
reversed previously given orders to a Green Line operator and told him he did not have
to stand at the station. The CTA says early on its control center employees began to
recognize his voice and eventually recorded his calls and blocked most of them from
reaching train and bus operators. The CTA says he made more than 300 radio calls on
CTA frequencies, most during the past month and half. Technology experts say his
‘playing around’ was not easy to do. While buying a radio and listening to frequencies is
not against the law, hacking into a radio system takes some time and luck. “Even most
secure systems could eventually be broken into,” said a professor from the Illinois
Institute of Technology.
Source: http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=6945913
16. August 3, Southern Illinoisan – (Illinois) Train damages miles of tracks, no one
injured. A Union Pacific train did significant damage to the railroad track running
through downtown in Johnston City Monday morning. The city fire chief said the
department did not request any mutual aid to deal with the situation, and no injuries
were reported in connection with the incident. “It did a lot of damage,” he said. “It
totally destroyed the tracks all the way through town.” He said the train appeared to
have lost a part en route through Johnston City and the piece was dragged underneath
the train, tearing up concrete and tracks for several miles. An Illinois spokesperson for
Union Pacific Railroad did not return phone calls placed by the Southern Illinoisan
Monday. Marion Police Department dispatchers confirmed the train never derailed.
Source: http://www.thesouthern.com/articles/2009/08/04/local/29250850.txt
17. August 3, Aviation Herald – (Virginia) Delta Airlines B752 at Washington on Aug
2nd 2009, rejected takeoff due to engine fire indication. The crew of a Delta Airlines
Boeing 757-200, performing flight DL-1234 from Washington National Airport to New
York, New York, rejected takeoff from Washington’s Ronald Reagan National Airport
runway 36 at low speed due to an engine fire indication for the number 1 (left hand)
engine (PW2037). The airplane stopped safely, emergency services responded and
foamed the engine, and the passengers were kept on board. The airport entered a ground
stop for 67 minutes as result of the incident. The airplane was towed to the gate about an
-7-
hour later, where passengers disembarked. Witnesses on the ground said the engine
appeared on fire just as the airplane started the takeoff roll.
Source: http://avherald.com/h?article=41dae415&opt=4865
For more stories, see items 2, 5, 6, and 28
[Return to top]
Postal and Shipping Sector
18. August 4, Lewiston Sun Journal – (Maine) Mailboxes blown up on West Side Road in
Weld. A Franklin County, Maine sheriff’s deputy is investigating mailboxes being
blown up on the West Side Road between Thursday night and Friday morning, a police
official said. “We have suspects,” he said, and they are adults. The three or four
mailboxes were blown up using household items that cause a chemical reaction, the
police official said. A sheriff deputy responded to the first report Friday from a U.S.
Postal Service representative in Weld. The other reports followed, the police official
said. “We are going to involve a U.S. Postal Service inspector” and the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, he said. Blowing up a mailbox is a federal
crime, the police official added.
Source: http://www.sunjournal.com/node/48643/
[Return to top]
Agriculture and Food Sector
19. August 4, Sarasota Herald-Tribune – (Florida) Raw-milk lovers skirt the law.
Unpasteurized product must be labeled ‘pet use only,’ but people are drinking it. The
label on the jug reads “for pet use only,” but in the privacy of their kitchens, thousands
of people statewide mix smoothies with, churn ice cream with, and drink cold glasses of
raw milk. It is illegal in Florida and many other states to sell raw milk as a human
beverage because it can harbor pathogens such as Listeria and E. coli. Milk meant for
people must undergo a heating process called pasteurization, which kills all bacteria. But
no laws forbid drinking it. Its growing popularity coincides with rising national demand
for organic food and a return to small farming. Nationally, somewhere between 500,000
to 3 million people consume raw milk, said the interim director of the Farm to
Consumer Legal Defense Fund. No surveys document the number of consumers
compared to previous years, but the interim director said nearly twice as many people
are calling his office now than last year to find out how to sell raw milk without running
afoul of the law. The federal Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, and the United States Department of Agriculture all warn
against drinking raw milk.
Source:
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090804/ARTICLE/908041056/2055/NEWS?Tit
le=Raw-milk-lovers-skirt-the-law
20. August 1, Bangor Daily News – (Maine) More than 140 salmon found dead at
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hatchery. Federal biologists are investigating an apparent mechanical problem that
killed more than 140 endangered adult Atlantic salmon at the Craig Brook National Fish
Hatchery in East Orland. The dead salmon, which had been used to produce eggs and
baby fish for the Pleasant River, were discovered by hatchery staff around 8 a.m. on July
29. While the exact cause is still under investigation, staff said something caused the
water flow into the giant tank to drop by half, resulting in low oxygen levels in the
water. The manager of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service hatchery said the loss would not
affect the facility’s production of young fish and eggs for the Pleasant River. The 142
salmon that died were 5 years old and were slated for release later this year after being
spawned for three years. “We were mostly just holding onto them as a backup,” he said.
The problem so far has stumped hatchery staff, and an engineer was brought in to
investigate. The manager said there is speculation that air may have built up in one of
the lines, thereby blocking the water flow. The Pleasant River’s system has since been
restored to normal. This is the second mysterious incident this year that resulted in
deaths at the hatchery. During the winter, almost 800,000 eggs for the Penobscot River
inexplicably died. Fish experts at three different facilities looked for causes in the mass
die-off of eggs but were unable to come to a conclusion.
Source: http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/114078.html
For another story, see item 3
[Return to top]
Water Sector
21. August 4, Washington Post – (District of Columbia) More D.C. kids had elevated lead
than stated. More than twice as many D.C. children as previously reported by federal
and local health officials had high levels of lead in their blood amid the city’s drinking
water crisis, according to congressional investigators, throwing into doubt assurances by
those officials that the lead in tap water did not seriously harm city children. The new
information was uncovered by a House subcommittee investigating the federal Centers
for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention’s performance and has raised congressional
concern about whether the agency properly alerted District residents to a health risk
from unprecedented levels of lead in the water. Local officials could not say August 3
whether some children with unsafe lead exposure have gone without intervention to
reduce health risks. The CDC and city health department had reported dangerously high
lead levels in 193 children in 2003, the worst year for high concentrations of lead in city
tap water. But lab data gathered by congressional investigators this year show that the
actual number was 486 children. The subcommittee’s investigators uncovered the higher
figures by seeking the data directly from all D.C. labs that analyze local test results.
After the lead problem became public in 2004, blood tests from thousands of city
children taken in 2003 were inexplicably missing from D.C. government files. In a
written statement, CDC officials declined to comment on the new data, saying they had
not seen it.
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2009/08/03/AR2009080303003.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST200902
1100308
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22. August 3, KOAA 5 Pueblo/Colorado Springs – (Colorado) 100 homes in Pueblo Co.
without running water. A neighborhood in Pueblo County may have to go without
running water for the rest of the week. Residents in the Zinno subdivision near 20th
Lane are now getting their water from a water tank truck. On August 1, a pipe broke at a
water supply building leaving roughly 100 families without running water. The
subdivision’s water supplier says it could take until August 7 to repair the system.
Source: http://www.koaa.com/aaaa_top_stories/x626727441/100-homes-in-Pueblo-Cowithout-running-water
23. August 2, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – (Wisconsin) Storm sewers oozing human
fecal bacteria to beaches, rivers, study finds. Human sewage is flowing out of
municipal storm sewers and into local waterways and Lake Michigan on rainy days
without sanitary sewer overflows to blame for the load, and even during periods of dry
weather, a three-year study has concluded. And the contamination cannot be pinned on
raccoons or other animals living in the storm sewers. Genetic testing ruled them out.
Human fecal pollution is found at several beaches and rivers throughout the Milwaukee
area, creating an unseen though serious public health risk for anyone in the water, said
an associate scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Great Lakes WATER
Institute and the study’s lead researcher. Testing storm water for the genetic marker for a
human fecal bacteria uncovered a large number of storm sewers discharging the bacteria
to the environment, though none should be doing that, she said. Her laboratory is
capable of detecting a species of Bacteroides found in humans but not other animals.
The work was done from 2006 through 2008. Most likely sources include broken
sanitary sewers that leak into storm-water pipes, or sanitary pipes misconnected to storm
sewers, according a community environmental liaison with the Milwaukee Metropolitan
Sewerage District. The researchers called for an investigation to determine the problems
and how they can be fixed.
Source: http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/52319607.html
[Return to top]
Public Health and Healthcare Sector
24. August 4, Los Angeles Times – (National) Pneumonia vaccine may help limit swine
flu deaths. In years past, the nation’s attempts to prevent flu-related deaths have focused
on limiting transmission of the virus through widespread vaccination programs. This
year, with school starting up well before a vaccine for the pandemic H1N1 influenza
virus will be available, there will be little that can slow the spread of the virus for the
next few months. However, public health authorities say most of the serious
consequences linked to the virus are the result of pneumonia, and an underused vaccine
called Pneumovax can prevent, or at least limit, such complications in many patients.
The vaccine, made by Merck & Co., stimulates the body’s ability to neutralize the
bacteria responsible for many cases of pneumonia, and it has the potential to prevent an
estimated one-third of pneumonia deaths linked to swine flu.
Source: http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-sci-pneumonia42009aug04,0,6872284.story
- 10 -
25. August 4, Washington Post – (National) U.S. revises swine flu strategy. The
Presidential Administration is finalizing guidelines that would scale back when the
federal government recommends closing schools in response to the swine flu pandemic,
several people involved in the deliberations said Monday. Such guidance would mark a
change in the government’s approach from this spring, when health officials suggested
that schools shut down at the first sign of the H1N1 virus. They later relaxed that advice.
This fall, federal authorities would recommend closures only under “extenuating
circumstances,” such as if a campus has many children with underlying medical
conditions, a senior U.S. health official involved in the talks said. The official added that
discussions are continuing that and no final decision has been made. Schools also might
be advised to close if many students or staff members are already sick or otherwise
absent, officials said.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32277813/ns/health-more_health_news//
26. August 3, Seattle Times – (Washington) Fire at Cle Elum senior-center investigated.
Fire investigators are unsure whether a fire that destroyed a popular Cle Elum senior
center Saturday began as a grease fire or a propane leak, officials say. Between 90 and
100 people were in the Centennial Center when the fire began around 6 p.m. Saturday,
said a Kittitas County, Washington emergency spokeswoman. One man was injured and
flown to Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center.
Source:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009588972_webcleelumfire03.html
For another story, see item 36
[Return to top]
Government Facilities Sector
27. August 4, Wilkes-Barre Times Leader – (Pennsylvania) Blast levels house in Exeter.
An explosion that leveled a house Saturday afternoon in Exeter, Pennsylvania critically
injured the owner, damaged the neighboring John F. Kennedy Elementary School and
rattled buildings up to two miles away. The Exeter police chief said state police are
conducting a criminal investigation, but no details were available. The explosion caused
structural damage to 20 to 25 nearby houses, the Luzerne County Emergency
Management Agency director said. The borough building inspector condemned the
elementary school, which sustained structural damage and broken windows. The
Wyoming Area School superintendent said the district’s engineer will inspect the school
this week to assess the damage. A report has been filed with the district insurance
carrier.
Source: http://www.timesleader.com/news/Blast_levels_house_in_Exeter_08-022009.html
28. August 4, Associated Press – (Indiana; Kentucky) Storm-fed flash floods hit
Kentucky, Indiana. Heavy thunderstorms fed floods in Kentucky and Indiana on
Tuesday, shutting down a university campus in Louisville, closing highways, and
- 11 -
cutting power to thousands of people. The storm shut down the University of Louisville,
where about a dozen buildings were without power and a dozen more had some flooding
on the main campus, said a university spokesman. Dozens of university of employees
were evacuated, he said. Floodwaters gushed over guardrails on Interstate 65, bringing
traffic to a standstill in Clark County, Indiana, across the Ohio River from Louisville.
The director of Louisville’s public library system said 3 1/2 feet of water inundated the
main library’s lower level. He said tens of thousands of books were lost and the library
was forced to close. He said staff vehicles and bookmobiles were also flooded. In
Indiana, police and state conservation officers rescued several people, mostly stranded
motorists caught in high waters, said a spokesman for the Indiana Department of
Homeland Security. Duke Energy reported more than 24,000 customers without power
just after noon, including nearly 14,000 in western Indiana.
Source:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hpRdRCgreAyzdNBA3lRhw91
VSlzAD99S6O9O1
29. August 4, Augusta Chronicle – (Georgia) Tiny beetles infest two plutonium
containers. The government’s elaborate plan for transporting its most dangerous nuclear
materials ran into a glitch due to an infestation problem. According to a report from the
U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Scientific and Technical Information, a beetle
infestation compromised the process. “During unloading operations at the Plutonium
Fabrication Plant at the Hanford Site, two 9975 Shipping Packages were found to
contain live insects,” the report said, referring to the hardened, lead-shielded containers
used to transport bomb-grade plutonium. The intruders were identified by a Clemson
University researcher as drugstore beetles — a common species named for its habit of
eating pharmaceuticals, kitchen spices and virtually anything else it can access. The
infestations were detected in a packing material called Celotex that is placed around the
secure metal containers as a shock absorber and as insulation against fire damage. “It
was determined after initial investigation that the beetles were consuming the glue
boundary layers between the Celotex layers in the assemblies,” the report said, noting
that no nuclear material was compromised. The unprecedented discovery prompted an
investigation led by Savannah River National Laboratory. “This is the first time that
anyone I know in the packaging community had ever observed anything like this,” said
the manager of the lab’s Packaging Technology Group. “If you look at the history of
radioactive material packaging and the use of Celotex, tens of thousands of packages
have been made with this,” he said. “It was very unusual.” The official said that Celotex
will be replaced with a polyurethane foam in future containers.
Source: http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/2009/08/04/met_543165.shtml
30. August 4, Associated Press – (Hawaii) Depleted uranium no risk to public, Army
contends. A preliminary study has concluded the public is not at risk from depleted
uranium at the Pohakuloa Training Area on the Big Island, the military said. The Army
conducted the study as part of its licensing application to the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (NRC) for a site-specific environmental radiation monitoring plan.
According to the report, only three pieces of the radioactive material have been found at
Pohakuloa, and the remainder, if any, likely fell into cracks in the lava. The July 8 report
- 12 -
says, “If any significant quantity of DU was fired at PTA, it is expected to have quickly
migrated through the pahoehoe and a’a basalt flows and is no longer detectable at the
surface.” The migration theory “made me giggle,” said a Big Island resident who served
10 years as head of research at the Colorado School of Mines after a 25-year stint on a
uranium project with the U.S. Geological Survey. “On the basis of that study, they can’t
come to that conclusion,” the resident said. “That document they sent to the NRC, I
think, was extremely superficial and often contradictory.” The Army confirmed the
presence of the depleted uranium at the training area in 2007. The chief public affairs
officer for the Army’s Pacific region said the NRC will help the Army set procedures to
deal with the depleted uranium. “The NRC will issue us the policies, the procedures, the
protocols on which we manage depleted uranium on our ranges,” he said.
Source:
http://www.starbulletin.com/news/20090804_Depleted_uranium_no_risk_to_public_Ar
my_contends.html
31. August 3, WIRED – (National) Marines ban Twitter, Myspace, Facebook. The U.S.
Marine Corps has banned Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and other social media sites
from its networks, effective immediately. “These internet sites in general are a proven
haven for malicious actors and content and are particularly high risk due to information
exposure, user generated content and targeting by adversaries,” reads a Marine Corps
order, issued on August 3. “The very nature of SNS [social network sites] creates a
larger attack and exploitation window, exposes unnecessary information to adversaries
and provides an easy conduit for information leakage that puts OPSEC [operational
security], COMSEC [communications security], [and] personnel… at an elevated risk of
compromise.” The Marines’ ban will last a year. It was drawn up in response to a late
July warning from U.S. Strategic Command, which told the rest of the military it was
considering a Defense Department-wide ban on the Web 2.0 sites, due to network
security concerns. Scams, worms, and Trojans often spread unchecked throughout social
media sites, passed along from one online friend to the next. “The mechanisms for social
networking were never designed for security and filtering. They make it way too easy
for people with bad intentions to push malicious code to unsuspecting users,” a Stratcom
source told Danger Room. Yet many within the Pentagon’s highest ranks find value in
the Web 2.0 tools. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has 4,000 followers on
Twitter. The Department of Defense is getting ready to unveil a new home page, packed
with social media tools. The Army recently ordered all U.S. bases to provide access to
Facebook. Top generals now blog from the battlefield.
Source: http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/08/marines-ban-twitter-myspacefacebook/
32. August 3, Mason City Globe Gazette – (Iowa) Names of juveniles in Charles City pop
bomb case released. The names of the two juveniles arrested in connection with the
discovery of a series of pop bottle bombs in Charles City have been released. The 14 and
15-year old suspects, both of Charles City, were charged in Floyd County Juvenile
Court Monday morning with possession of explosive or incendiary materials or devices.
Ten pop bottle bombs were discovered on the grounds of Washington Elementary
School during the past two weeks. Two were discovered July 20, seven were found July
- 13 -
26 and another was placed the evening of July 28 and found July 29. Four of the pop
bottles had exploded, according to authorities. When the devices explode, acid or other
chemicals can spray out. The bombs were made with common kitchen products
containing acid.
Source:
http://www.globegazette.com/articles/2009/08/03/news/latest/doc4a772f63c6d86482424
112.txt
For another story, see item 25
[Return to top]
Emergency Services Sector
33. August 4, New York 1 – (New York) Emergency drill takes place in New York
Harbor. The New York City Police Department and the Coast Guard boarded ships in
New York Harbor as part of a drill aimed at stopping vessels that could be carrying
radioactive materials. The exercise took place beginning at 10 a.m. Tuesday in the
waters south of the Verrazano Bridge. The drill is part of the ongoing Securing the
Cities initiative meant to guard against the infiltration of a dirty bomb or nuclear device
into the city.
Source: http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/103463/emergency-drill-takes-placein-new-york-harbor/Default.aspx
34. August 3, Associated Press – (National) FEMA to focus on children’s needs during
disaster. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is going to plan more broadly
for children and their needs as the government prepares for disasters. Most disaster plans
are crafted around adult populations, and people with specific needs — such as children
— are often an afterthought, a FEMA administrator said in an interview with the
Associated Press. A new FEMA working group will work with the congressionally
mandated National Commission on Children and Disasters, created in 2007. The FEMA
group will focus on specific guidance for evacuating, sheltering and relocating children;
helping childcare centers, schools and child welfare programs prepare for disasters; and
making disaster preparation part of the Homeland Security Department’s grant
programs. The working group’s findings could mean changes to the country’s blueprint
for disaster response, known as the National Response Framework.
Source:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gGakDBPKJTnaZFXtM5GcAw
ceLfiQD99RIC183
35. August 3, Associated Press – (Arizona) Computer virus hits police system in
Flagstaff. A virus has invaded a computer system used by Flagstaff police and the
Coconino County Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff’s office technical support said each
department’s individual computers and servers were infected with a virus that allows
somebody else to control the system and use the power of the system that has been taken
over. The most common side effect of the virus is locking out account users from the
system. Authorities said the virus is not designed to compromise personal or sensitive
- 14 -
information. A Flagstaff police spokesman said officers wrote their reports in their
vehicles and stored the information on flash drives to be printed out in hard copy later.
Authorities are not sure when the computer system would be completely cleaned and
fully back online.
Source: http://www.kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=10828638&nav=menu216_2
36. August 1, Houston Chronicle – (Texas) Nearly a year after Ike, UTMB reopens its
ER. The Galveston full-service emergency center that Hurricane Ike closed for nearly a
year reopened Saturday morning, relieving overburdened trauma centers throughout the
region. The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston accepted a patient at 7:45
a.m., the first person treated in the emergency room since the storm inundated the
UTMB campus September 13. Officials expected to treat between 120 and 150 patients
on Saturday. Before Ike, UTMB had one of the area’s three Level 1 trauma centers,
which have the facilities and doctors to treat the sickest patients at any hour. The 10 1/2month hiatus means the center, which treated 64,000 patients a year, lost its top rating
from the American College of Surgeons. But officials said the facility can provide the
same emergency and trauma care offered prior to the storm. The hospital is working to
have the ER “redesignated” as a Level 1 trauma center. Opening the doors takes the
pressure off Ben Taub General Hospital and Memorial Hermann Hospital in the Texas
Medical Center, which have the area’s only other Level 1 trauma centers. Patients have
crowded area emergency rooms since Hurricane Ike, and ambulances have been forced
to take patients long distances or remain out of service for hours.
Source: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6557383.html
37. July 31, Greenville News – (South Carolina) Fountain Inn police station evacuated
after meth bust. The Fountain Inn police station was evacuated for about two hours the
morning of July 30 when officers started to feel sick after arresting three suspects and
processing equipment from a suspected rolling meth lab. Greenville County narcotics
officers and state Department of Health and Environmental Control staffers were called
to the police station and arrived at about 1 a.m. to check the building for contamination
but found no evidence of leaks or spills, according to the police chief. “It was perhaps
residual odor from some of the apparatus that they (suspects) had that they’d used
prior,” he said. One person was taken to the hospital as a precaution, and all people in
the building were checked by medical staffers, he said. Five officers, one dispatcher, and
three suspects were in the building at the time. None reported medical problems later
that day. The incident started about midnight when an officer made a routine traffic stop,
approached the vehicle, and saw open containers of alcohol and began to further search
the vehicle. Officers found equipment commonly used to manufacture
methamphetamine, seized the equipment, and brought it back to the police station, the
police chief said.
Source:
http://www.greenvilleonline.com/article/20090731/NEWS/907310321/1069/YOURUPS
TATE01/Fountain-Inn-police-station-evacuated-after-meth-bust
For another story, see item 47
[Return to top]
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Information Technology
38. August 4, ComputerWeekly – (International) Apple sneaks out data leakage patch.
Apple has released an upgrade for its GarageBand audio editing application that
includes a security patch not mentioned in the update announcement. According to
Apple’s support web site, GarageBand 5.1 “addresses general compatibility issues,
improves overall stability, and fixes a number of other minor issues”. But a security
advisory reveals that the update includes a fix for a security flaw in GarageBand that
allows Safari browser users’ web activity to be tracked by third parties and advertisers.
The advisory says that when GarageBand is opened, Safari’s preferences are changed to
always accept cookies. The default preference is to accept cookies only for the sites
being visited. Apple warns that the altered setting may allow third parties and
advertisers to track a user’s web activity.
Source: http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2009/08/04/237166/apple-sneaksout-data-leakage-patch.htm
39. August 3, The Register – (International) AES encryption not as tough as you think.
Cryptographers have found a new chink in the widely used AES encryption standard
that suggests the safety margin of its most powerful cipher is not as high as previously
thought. In a soon-to-be-published paper, five researchers show that the 256-bit version
of AES is susceptible to several so-called related-key attacks that significantly diminish
the amount of time it takes to guess a key. One technique against the 11-round version
of the cipher can be completed in 270 operations; an improvement that a cryptographer
says was strong enough to be “almost practical.” Another attack uses only two related
keys to crack the complete key of a nine-round version in 239 time, a vast improvement
over the 2120 time of the best previous attack. A third attack breaks a 10-round version
in 245 time. Like previous attacks on AES, the latest techniques are still wildly
impractical, cryptographers say. But because most of the world depends on the
encryption standard to keep sensitive records and communications secure from
outsiders, the findings are nonetheless significant. AES is also the foundation of several
candidates for a new cryptographic hashing algorithm called SHA-3 that will be adopted
by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology. “When you’re trying to
build a system with a long life span, you want to have ciphers that are very conservative,
so if there is a new attack that comes along, you have a long safety margin,” says the
president and chief scientist at Cryptography Research, a San Francisco-based
consultancy. “If you’re trying to design a system that will be in the field for 30 years,
you start worrying about stuff like this.”
Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/03/new_crypto_attack/
40. August 3, Associated Press – (New Jersey) Man is first to be charged with Web name
theft. A northern New Jersey man is charged with stealing a prime piece of Internet real
estate and reselling it to a basketball player in one of the nation’s first prosecutions of a
suspected domain name thief. The 25-year-old, of Union, hacked into an online account
belonging to one of the owners of the P2P.com domain name, New Jersey State Police
said on August 3. He allegedly shifted ownership to himself and resold the Web site
address on eBay to a Los Angeles Clippers forward who did not know the name was
- 16 -
stolen. The suspect, who works for an online research firm, was arrested on July 30 on
felony charges of theft by unlawful taking or deception, identity theft and computer
theft. A state police spokesman said each of the three counts carries a maximum
sentence of 10 years.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32270824/ns/technology_and_sciencetech_and_gadgets/
41. August 3, The Register – (International) Twitter starts filtering links to malware sites.
Micro-blogging site Twitter has begun filtering links to known malware sites. The tactic,
noticed by security researchers on August 3 but yet to be officially announced by
Twitter, is designed to prevent surfers straying onto sites packed with dangerous
exploits. Adoption of the approach follows the increased targeting of Twitter by worms,
spam and account hijacking attacks over recent weeks. The widespread use of URL
shortening in Twitter messages (which can be no longer than 140 characters) makes it
easy to hide the true destination of links. A blog posting by an individual of F-Secure
explains how surfers are served up a warning message when they attempt to follow a
link from Twitter towards a known bad site. A security researcher at Kaspersky Lab
adds that Twitter appears to be using Google’s Safe Browsing API. “It won’t catch
everything but is definitively a step forward,” he adds.
Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/03/twitter_applies_malware_filter/
Internet Alert Dashboard
To report cyber infrastructure incidents or to request information, please contact US−CERT at soc@us−cert.gov or visit their
Website: http://www.us-cert.gov.
Information on IT information sharing and analysis can be found at the IT ISAC (Information Sharing and Analysis Center)
Website: https://www.it-isac.org/.
[Return to top]
Communications Sector
Nothing to report
[Return to top]
Commercial Facilities Sector
42. August 4, WEWS 5 Cleveland – (Ohio) Rec center to reopen after teens sent home
sick. A local recreation center reopened August 4 after a carbon monoxide scare.
Cleveland Heights, Ohio emergency crews said five girls tested positive for carbon
monoxide after they said they were not feeling good at the Cleveland Heights Recreation
Center. The girls said they became dizzy while ice skating. The Cleveland Heights Parks
and Recreation Commissioner said there were no signs of carbon monoxide found in the
building. The commissioner said the Zamboni was not a suspect because it is electrical,
not gas-powered. Fire investigators are scheduled to re-test the building to search for the
source of the gas.
- 17 -
Source: http://www.newsnet5.com/news/20274530/detail.html
43. August 3, Modesto Bee – (California) Fire guts Modesto building that’s home to 18
businesses. Early on August 3, a handful of people came to look at the smoldering
remains of a Modesto, California office complex gutted by a weekend fire. The heat was
so intense that it popped open file cabinets, stripped nearby trees of their bark and
buckled the plastic trim on the neighboring Burger King. An employee of the
management group that owns the building on North Carpenter Road said he was amazed
the fire did not spread. “You have a building the size of a football field and you don’t
see any damage to any other buildings,” he said, praising firefighters. By 9 a.m.
Modesto investigators reviewed surveillance video from the Burger King and two other
cameras to find the cause of the fire, said Battalion Chief. The fire caused at least $1
million in damage, said a Modesto Fire Department investigator. The cause of the fire is
under investigation, but witnesses said it appeared to have started on the south side of
the building. The blaze destroyed 18 businesses. Someone calling 911 from the Burger
King restaurant next door reported the fire at midnight. It took 27 firefighters about an
hour to get the blaze under control, added the investigator.
Source: http://www.modbee.com/2391/story/803455.html?storylink=omni_popular
44. August 2, Associated Press – (Indiana) Fire at Kokomo apartment injures 8.
Authorities say a fire at a senior citizens’ apartment building in Kokomo, Indiana
slightly injured six residents on August 2 and forced the evacuation of more than 100
others. The Kokomo Fire Department says six residents and two firefighters were treated
for smoke inhalation after the 2 a.m. fire at the government-owned Terrace Tower
Apartments. Investigators say the fire began on the fifth floor of the seven-story
building, forcing the evacuation of all 100 residents, some of whom had to be carried
down the stairs. The residents were taken to a nearby high school until they were could
return home. The Red Cross was finding temporary housing for others. Although the fire
was contained to one apartment, investigators say smoke and water damaged 17 other
units. Investigators have not determined the cause of the fire.
Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-in-kokomofire,0,1223392.story
45. August 2, Newsday – (New York) 13 injured as car crashed into Queens street fair. A
livery cabdriver lost control of his car and smashed into a Queens street fair the
afternoon of August 2, New York City police said, leaving 13 people with minor
injuries. Police said the car crashed into a food stand that contained a propane tank,
which was knocked loose and wound up pinned underneath the car. A possible
explosion was averted by EMS workers who removed the tank, a New York Fire
Department spokesman said. An Ecuadorean Heritage Pride Parade was underway
during the time of the crash. Eleven people were treated at the scene. Two others with
minor injuries were taken to Elmhurst Hospital, the Fire Department spokesman said.
The driver is not expected to be charged, according to a police spokesman.
Source: http://www.newsday.com/news/new-york/13-injured-as-car-crashes-intoqueens-street-fair-1.1343973
[Return to top]
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National Monuments & Icons Sector
46. August 3, Associated Press – (California) Evacuation order lifted after Calif.
wildfires. Authorities lifted an evacuation order on August 3 as firefighters cleared
vegetation around homes in Shasta County (northern California) that had been
threatened when weekend lightning strikes ignited more than 40 blazes. The mandatory
evacuation went into effect on August 2 for Big Eddy Estates and Sam Wolfin Springs
in the county 160 miles north of Sacramento. Fire officials said the blazes in the area
had burned about 1,500 acres and were 10 percent contained. Twelve fires had been
fully contained. A 1,000-acre fire was burning in Lassen National Forest along Highway
89, which prompted the temporary closure of a stretch of the road. A 1,600-acre fire in
the county was 50 percent contained, with full containment expected by August 7. In
Stanislaus National Forest in Tuolumne County, a fire that began July 26 had grown to
4,600 acres as firefighters struggled in steep, rugged terrain, a CalFire spokeswoman
said. Three people have been injured, including a firefighter who broke his foot. The
cause was under investigation.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32271475/ns/weather/
47. August 3, Northern Arizona Today – (Arizona) Renovations to clinic building in
Grand Canyon National Park begin. Work recently began on renovations to the clinic
building on the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park. Over 1,900 square feet of
space in the north corner of the Mission 66 clinic building will be renovated during this
second phase of improvements for emergency responders. This project will provide new
office space for the Grand Canyon Regional Communications Center and improve office
space for the park’s emergency medical services (EMS) program. The building’s
HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) and utility systems will also be
renovated during the project. Once completed, these improvements will allow for a more
consolidated and efficient emergency response in the park as most of the South Rim’s
emergency response personnel will be working in one location. Currently,
communications center staff work out of several small rooms in Park Headquarters
about 1.5 miles away from many of the Grand Canyon emergency responders they
support. In addition to allowing staff to work more closely and efficiently, the
renovations will provide improved connectivity and internet access for the EMS
program, upgraded 911 equipment, improved radio communications across the park, and
up to 20 percent more space for the communications center including two complete
operator consoles and one workstation with a radio base-station where a third dispatcher
could be dedicated to a singe incident. The Grand Canyon Regional Communications
Center is a major law enforcement, fire, EMS, search and rescue (SAR), and public
safety telecommunications operation. The center provides support for the day-to-day
and emergency operations of the entire greater Grand Canyon area, including Grand
Canyon and Petrified Forest National Parks and Sunset Crater, Walnut Canyon, and
Wupatki National Monuments, as well as the outlying communities of Tusayan,
Demotte Park, and adjacent county areas.
Source: http://www.naztoday.com/news/local-news/2009/08/renovations-to-clinicbuilding-in-grand-canyon-national-park-begin/
- 19 -
48. August 3, U.S. Department of Justice – (Pennsylvania) Five companies agree to $21
million settlement for environmental damages in Pennsylvania. Five companies have
agreed to compensate the United States and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania nearly
$21.4 million in cash and valuable property to address natural resource damages
resulting from decades of zinc smelting operations at the Palmerton Zinc Pile Superfund
site in northeast Pennsylvania, the Justice Department and the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania announced on August 3. The settlement is the largest natural resource
damage settlement to date in Pennsylvania. CBS Operations Inc., TCI Pacific
Communications Inc., CBS/Westinghouse of Pa. Inc., HH Liquidating Corp. and HRD
Liquidating Corp., agreed to make a cash payment of $9.875 million and to transfer
1200 acres of valuable property, known as the Kings Manor property and valued at
approximately $8.72 million, to the Pennsylvania Game Commission. The companies’
cash payment will be deposited into the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Natural
Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration Trust Fund to be used to restore, replace,
or acquire the equivalent of natural resources injured as a result of releases of hazardous
substances at the Palmerton Zinc site. The settlement will resolve claims under the
Comprehensive Environmental Response and Compensation Act, also known as the
Superfund law, the Clean Water Act and the Pennsylvania Hazardous Sites Cleanup Act,
under which federal and state trustees of natural resources are authorized to seek
compensation for damages to resources that are injured by releases of hazardous
substances. Large quantities of the hazardous materials were carried by wind and
deposited over surrounding areas resulting in defoliation and contamination of
thousands of acres throughout the ridge and valley area of eastern Pennsylvania. The
National Park Service owns and maintains approximately 800 acres of land that has been
acquired to protect the Appalachian National Scenic Trail in this area, which winds
along the Blue Mountain ridge and through the associated gaps. The Pennsylvania Game
Commission also owns several thousand acres of State Game Lands on Blue Mountain.
Hazardous materials subsequently contaminated several miles of Aquashicola Creek and
the Lehigh River as a result of erosion, surface runoff, and shallow ground water
contamination.
Source: http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2009/August/09-enrd-762.html
49. August 2, Deseret News – (Utah) Plenty of wildfires still burning in Utah. Firefighters
have successfully contained the lightning-caused Cliff fire that has burned in Zion
National Park and adjacent Bureau of Land Management lands since last July 28. Yet a
number of fires continue to burn across the state. While Mother Nature is the main
culprit in these fires, fire officials are urging those who recreate outdoors to remain
vigilant and ensure their actions do not spark more with two months still remaining in
the fire season. The Cliff fire began at Black Ridge in BLM forest six miles south of the
Kolob Canyons Visitor Center during a strong thunderstorm that passed over the area,
according to a release from Zion National Park. The fire was driven by winds and spread
quickly in a northeastern direction into Zion. The fire burned a total of 744 acres, with
306 of those being in the park. On August 1 firefighters mopped up the remaining hot
spots along the fire line, and all but 20 were released and made available for other
assignments. A fire burning in Fishlake National Forest approximately 12 miles west of
Salina was started by lightning on July 5 and has burned an estimated 1291 acres as of
- 20 -
July 31. The fire is burning through mixed conifer, mahogany, juniper and aspen. No
structures are in danger, and the fire is being allowed to burn for resource benefits.
Source: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,705320813,00.html
[Return to top]
Dams Sector
50. August 4, Idaho Statesman – (Idaho) Anderson Dam to get some armor. Eight years
after the September 11th attacks, Anderson Ranch Dam may finally be made more
secure against potential terrorists. To gear up for the change, a public meeting will be
held Tuesday to discuss proposed security enhancements to the dam, which is 28 miles
northeast of Mountain Home on the south fork of the Boise River. The dam is one of
three Idaho dams on which the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation wants to increase security.
Lower Deer Flat Dam on Lake Lowell in Canyon County and Palisades Dam in Eastern
Idaho are the others. The project manager with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said the
focus now is on embankment dams rather than concrete dams. There are no plans to
revamp concrete dams on Lucky Peak and Arrowrock reservoirs, he said. For Anderson
Ranch Dam, the bureau plans two 4-foot-tall concrete barriers with rock in between to
separate the opposite lanes of traffic crossing the dam. The biggest concern for the
dam’s safety is explosives, and the barrier would reduce vulnerabilities associated with
vehicle traffic, he said. Two-way traffic would still be allowed, and any disruptions
would be small, the bureau said. The barrier will most likely be put in place by late next
spring, he said. He said studies began soon after the September 11th attacks attack to
evaluate and set priorities for further securing America’s dams. The “extensive analysis”
nationwide explains the eight-year lag, he said.
Source: http://www.idahostatesman.com/localnews/story/855050.html
51. August 4, WISC 3 Madison – (Wisconsin) Buffalo lake dam safety under review. The
Wisconsin State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and local officials are
working to prevent a situation like last year’s dam breech at Lake Delton from possibly
happening on another lake. The view from Sunset Drive in Montello is of peaceful
Buffalo Lake, a man-made water body created in the late 1800s by damming the Fox
River. The half-mile wide lake stretches nearly 12 miles in length, and all comes to a
head on Sunset Drive, where a dike beneath the pavement holds back the water.
Officials said that recent soil samples find the strength of the earth is weakening, which
could lead to washout. They warn about what could help if steps are not taken. If the
dam were to fail, a dam safety engineer with the DNR said, “We will lose the
embankment certainly. We will lose the lake, and mostly probably, we will inundate a
number of homes along Main Street.” Even though the DNR said failure is not
imminent, the concern is real. The engineer said he hopes for repairs within the next 12
months, but is not yet certain of cost. He estimates repairs could range between
$100,000 and $1 million, depending on the solution.
Source: http://www.channel3000.com/news/20271758/detail.html
52. August 3, Billings Gazette – (Wyoming) Malfunction drops Bighorn River. The
abrupt loss of about 2,500 cubic feet per second of water — almost three-quarters of the
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Bighorn River’s total flow — was caused by the malfunction of new automated gate
equipment at the Yellowtail Afterbay Dam caused by an electrical surge, according to
the Bureau of Reclamation. During the failure, the river’s flow fell from around 4,000
cfs to 1,500 cfs for about 45 minutes. Anglers reported small trout stranded and flopping
on land after the quick drop, and fish jumping in a panic, saying that it looked like a
salmon run. An alarm warned workers at Yellowtail Dam who quickly reacted to
remedy the drawdown. The Montana area manager the Bureau of Reclamation said,
“We believe this malfunction was triggered by a significant electrical surge, but
regardless of the cause, it points out the need for additional fail-safe mechanisms in our
control system. Although we’ve already taken steps to ensure a similar malfunction
doesn’t occur again, that doesn’t change the fact that the fishery resource was likely
impacted — to what extent we won’t likely know immediately,” he said.
Source:
http://www.trib.com/articles/2009/08/04/news/wyoming/7e852bd4ebd0eafd8725760600
7852cf.txt
53. August 3, Houma Today – (Louisiana) Hurricane Ike damage still present on Dularge
levees. Levee board officials got a look at the real height of many of Terrebonne’s
sinking levees and highways at their board meeting Monday night. It is a picture that
looks especially bad for Dularge, where levees are untouched and unrepaired since
Hurricane Ike. Levees there were overtopped by storm surge last September, and
officials found large dips and holes in the levee during their inspection tour last week.
The levee protecting lower Dularge is about 7 feet tall, but officials found areas that had
been washed out to less than 4 feet. The levees are still unrepaired, and parish risked
losing federal emergency money if it tried to do any repairs itself, said the Terrebonne
Levee director. The levee board did not get the go ahead from the Natural Resources
Conservation Service, the agency paying for the repairs, until this summer. Officials
noted with concern that much of lower Dularge itself is below sea level. Some parts of
west Dularge are as much as 4 feet below sea level.
Source:
http://www.houmatoday.com/article/20090803/HURBLOG/908039912?Title=Hurricane
-Ike-damage-still-present-on-Dularge-levees
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